~ / neovim / visual-starlesson 5/7

Search for the selection: Visual * and #

Select any text and jump to its next or previous copy.

?how it works

In Normal mode, * and # search for the keyword under the cursor as a whole word. That falls apart for text like user.name, arr[i] or $HOME/bin: the keyword is only part of it.

In Visual mode, Neovim searches for exactly what you selected: * jumps to the next copy and # to the previous one. The selection is taken literally (Neovim puts \V, "very nomagic", in front and escapes backslashes), so dots, stars and brackets are just characters. Afterwards it's an ordinary search, so n and N keep going.

Because it sets the last search pattern, you can follow it with a substitute that leaves the pattern empty: :%s//new/g replaces every copy of the selection, with no escaping by hand.

Select, then star. vE or viW grab text with dots and brackets in one go; plain viw stops at the first dot.

⌨keys

`{Visual}*`	search forward for the selected textnvim
`{Visual}#`	search backward for the selected textnvim
`n / N`	next / previous match of the last search
`:%s//{new}/g`	replace every match of the last search

Nin neovim

These are default mappings (:h v_star-default, :h v_#-default). A count works: 2* in Visual mode goes to the second copy.

3 drills

Forward with Visual *: Select the text that starts at the cursor and jump to its next copy with Visual *. A plain * stops at a near miss.
Backward with Visual #: Select the text that starts at the cursor (up to the closing bracket or colon) and jump to its previous copy with Visual #.
Replace every copy: Replace every copy of the text at the cursor with the new name. Select it, press *, then run :%s with an empty pattern.

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